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Skarner, I miss your kind

Honestly I don't like the slow being moved to his E. His ability to spam his Q to stick on to targets is the biggest factor to him being viable, besides from his now changed ult (thank God). They should add the attack speed buff to his E and his slow to his Q. Make autos on targets marked by your E give you attack speed for a certain amount of time.

Honestly I don't like the slow being moved to his E. His ability to spam his Q to stick on to targets is the biggest factor to him being viable, besides from his now changed ult (thank God). They should add the attack speed buff to his E and his slow to his Q. Make autos on targets marked by your E give you attack speed for a certain amount of time.

I dont now if that works but at least he would be not like all the other chars with the ranged slow.
If I think about it,
it could be nice if E is the damage skill and Q the cc.
E would need some real punch and Q les damage but a little better slow.
Perhaps it would be unplayable (or overpowered) but I cant imagine it completely.

Can we see a gapcloser added to his kit where he burrows underground kinda like a vlad pool?(No slow? Maybe make it similar to draven's stand aside in that he travels underground in a line, and his stringer knocks anyone in the path to the side?

Trade this for E everyone has a gap closer so the would even the playing field more then put him ahead.
Lower mana costs on Q if u want to farm jungle at all his mana cost on a spammable ability really should be lower.
And fix so you can jump flash out of ult so many other abilities cancel flashes and jumps I really think such a defining ult as this should.
Leave w as is improving that would b to much of a buff his shield still breaks way to easily but if u activate it right after you gap close with new w it might stay for 1 or 2 aa's if u want to go this route change it from a shield to a stat buff and he heals a little bit for every unit he damages sort of like aatrox w but only while the buff continues

I know it is a bit difficult to have clear idea without trying him out and I am pretty hyped for most of the changes but one thing still worries me.

In his original form skarner's Q was designed with a useless first cast to give people a window of counterplay before both the damage and the slow train start. The power of the perma slow was balancing the fact that the first cast is so weak.

But now that there's no more slow on the Q I'm afraid skarner will experience a critical ramp-up feeling when fighting. I mean, with the new changes he slows you from afar, uses about half the duration to catch up to you, uses his first Q dealing close to no damage and only gaining a ridiculous amount of attack speed, then as you start escaping from him hits you with a second Q cast dealing empowered damage and getting additional attack speed and now either you're gone forever or he has to use his ultimate to keep on fighting.

Thing is I find it a bit too much to have both the damage and the as ramping up on a spell with no reliable way to reach the max power. Wouldn't it be better to consider having the full damage imediately or going for a full sustained damage gameplay making the damage also ramping up to 3 levels with higher damage peak ?

I don't see any reason for that first cast thing anymore now that the slow is gone and the attack speed is based on a 3 stacks mechanic...

Honestly, His E is pretty useless. If you want to actually gain health with it, the only time it will be beneficial is really vs monsters or minions with no champions around or a 1 v 1 with another champion: The reason why is because if he uses his ranged on minions and he charges forward to use his Q and pick up the hp, if an enemy champion is there and they have a knock-up, a ranged, an almost anything that has over 300 range, they can just hit you with a basic attack and steal all the health you just gained back. If you run out and you pop your shield too, you just spend around 150 comboing for about 100 hp early game and about 200 hp late game. However, if this is the beginning of the game, you've just used all your abilities and half or more of your mana. In addition, if your opponent uses a couple abilities on you and steals your shield and hp, you're left with no shield, no abilities, and no mana which just sucks. His E clearly needs to be changed to something like a burrow underground that has a huge cool down 20-25 seconds and doesn't do much dmg and has a high mana cost. But i like this more: You should give his E a passive that restores mana, starting at around 4 mana restored per strike that increases by 2-4 per level. As Skarner I am ALWAYS manastarved, even at high levels. Mana per strike would remove this problem and make his E actually worth taking. Another suggestion is that you make it so that consuming a mark gives him double the amount of Hp restored into a shield and 0.5 additional shield duration time if his W is up. This would make it actually do something to help skarner vs champions, which would be useful for a change. Buffing skarner upon consuming a mark or de-buffing marked champions upon losing the mark or while the mark is active would be nice too.

I've pretty much taken up Skarner as my main jungle champion for the last few months. I really enjoy playing him because of his constant sticking power, and the fact that once he pulls you towards his team, unless you're Ezreal, chances are that you aren't getting away. I enjoy that when I use my ult and it goes off, that it will mean something, that it will actually lead to a kill rather than having to worry that every champion will just get away because they all have gap closers that double as really good escape mechanisms. I enjoy that Skarner has a good clear time in the jungle, and that he has reliable jungle hp, so I don't need to worry about being counter-jungled and running into the enemy. I enjoy that Skarner is tanky enough and dangerous enough (due to cc) that the enemy actually fears him.

I really dislike a lot of things about Skarner too though. I hate that I avoid his E like the plague until I absolutely HAVE to take it. I hate that his passive doesn't seem to proc against structures. I hate that he's so kitable, but the most frustrating thing about Skarner for me is that I don't like his itemization.

Itemizing Skarner is confusing and counter-intuitive. His AP ratios aren't particularly great because he's meant to sustain and be tanky so you obviously cant have him bursting people down. But his damage is so low with AP builds that it doesn't matter how tanky you are, any enemy fighter will simply kill you because they have life steal and that out sustains your shield and E and then they do more damage and win the fight. This is even true when Skarner is fed. Building him pure tank doesn't feel right either because then you're running into the enemy not giving a flying carpet but you're only there so you can press Q over and over again until your team gets there, if you want to be like that just go play Malphite and be way better. So where does that leave me? Ad, I actually build Skarner AD despite him having no real reward built into his kit for doing so, simply because of the attack speed buff and his sticking power. It deals more damage, and due to life steal it sustains better against enemy fighters, plus you gain the added benefit of becoming a tower wrecking machine. Because there aren't a lot of anti-burst health items you end up being burstable but your over all sustain is way better, and once you start Qing and using your attacks to proc your black cleaver, your carries can ruin the enemies.

Honestly if I could change only one thing about Skarner, it would be his ratios so that his itemization was more intuitive.

but the most frustrating thing about Skarner for me is that I don't like his itemization.

Hey NoxiousIce, I know this doesn't exactly belong here but if you see this try building Spirit of the Elder Lizard > Frozen Gauntlet > Sunfire Cape > Witts End > Randuin's Omen/Warmogs getting Merc Treds or Ninja Tabi, whichever the game calls for. This offers a surprising amount of damage as well as tankyness with the added bonus of attack speed countering the loss of your shield.

As long as my lanes don't do terribly I have not lost with this build. (Terribly as in all of them dying at least 2+ times in the first 7 minutes, and continuing to be aggressive.) Once you pick up your Elder Lizard and Frozen Gauntlet you are laughing in the jungle because it takes you 1-2 Q's and like 2-3 auto's to clear any small camp and about 3-5 Q's, 4-6 Auto's and a smite to clear buffs. this may seem like a long time on "paper" but that's not including the attack speed from W.

To help with early ganks I run Smite and Exhaust. I wouldn't recommend doing this unless you are EXTREMELY confident with your Scarner play, cause all you can do otherwise is try and scuttle away hoping they don't break your shield.